PATHWAYS TOWARD A MORE SUSTAINABLE WORLD

of music to make us more attentive to the natural environment and act as a conduit to memorialize music. The session with Amy and Chris taught us about the benefits of a home designed with wellness in mind, from music and sound to plants, calming colors, mirrors that reflect natural light, and the natural shapes and textures that bring nature inside.

Part four of the series, Sip and Paint, offered a virtual art experience and virtual art session on painting elements of nature while sipping a beverage of choice. Our event partners were artist Kellie Sansone and Scout and Cellar who donated wine.

The fifth segment of our series was about experiencing the outdoor environment, establishing the touch, feel, and fulfillment of nature, growing food, planning a garden, and enhancing our landscapes in Biophilia in Your Community: Growing for the Greater Good. Horticulturist, designer, and educator Jeanette Ankoma-Sey and Carolyn Quinn, the owner and operator of Dug In Farms, an eight-acre farm located between White Stone and Kilmarnock, Virginia, each educated us on a variety of ways we can align with nature and land. Jeanette encouraged participants to seek out and enjoy the nature around us in Arlington’s well-designed parks and outdoor spaces and to be attentive to how our five senses are engaged while there. She also demonstrated how she puts her beliefs into practice creating her “own personal oasis” at home where her family can play, rest, and enjoy their own food habitat.

Jeanette introduced us to community gardens in Arlandria and the GW Grow Garden as examples of how everyone can be a part of a learning, living, and functioning food lab, even without a yard. At Carolyn Quinn’s, Dug In Farms, we vicariously experienced her transition from a city dweller to a small-town farmer who started small and is now supplying organic foods to restaurants and stores in Northern Virginia.

The Biophilia – Love Our Living World series helped us recognize strategies for achieving a healthier and more well-rounded view of life, where we actively participate in enhancing and embracing our environment and are fortified by organic gifts we receive in return.